Contact:

Advisor:

Timothy Randhir

Project Abstract

Scientists and politicians broadly recognize that natural systems don’t happen in isolation from human dynamics. Furthermore, among the new globalized world; where universal and homogenized ideas of the most efficient way to manage natural resources dominates the international political agendas; there are management alternatives promoting inclusion and cultural diversity based on Social-Ecological Systems (SESs). However, the complexity of these systems imposes a barrier to our capacity to predict the outcomes from their current and future transformations.

With my research I contribute to the advancement of our understanding of the complexity and resilience capacity of these systems in the tropics, specifically in equatorial regions. I am using the Orinoco River in South America to elucidate the impacts that historical transformation of the land use have on the runoff and soil loss, and its effects on SESs at different scales within the basin. For this I am currently building two models, one to represent the SESs dynamics using localized surveys, interviews and secondary sources of information, and a hydrologic model that uses historic series of water related variables.